When blind IT supervisor Gareth Holdcroft, 32, tried to book a room at the Number One South Beach, a mix-up meant he was told in an email that the hotel would not accept his guide dog, Ross.Whoops!
Claire Smith, owner of the hotel, on Harrowside West, said: “We apologise profusely for any upset caused – we certainly wouldn’t want to upset anyone for the world. “The problem is that our member of staff has sent an email saying that we do not take dogs because of allergies and she had no idea of the implications of this with it being a guide dog.”Then you didn't train her very well, did you?
Mrs Smith said: “We can take dogs in the restaurant and in the public areas and have done many, many times. We are legally bound to do so, and quite rightly too.See? You know the law. There are no excus...
Oh. Hang on.
“The last thing we want to do is discriminate.
“But we were in the awful situation where we had a guide dog stay with us. The dog left and we cleaned the room as we normally do and went to extra lengths so we thought we had removed all traces of the dog.” But she said their efforts were not enough to prevent another guest having an allergic reaction.
“He went up to his room and later came down with his eyes popping out,” she said. “It was terrifying. It frightened us to death because we thought we had killed this man. Had we not had this awful experience we would never have batted an eyelid.”Riiiiiight. There's no provision for this in legislation & you know it. Enough with the excuses.
The right way:
Maggi Burgess was asked to leave the Seaward Hotel in Weston-super-Mare by a member of staff after she stopped off with guide dog Annie for a coffee during a charity walk.What is it with hotels?
‘We went in and were greeted by a person who just said ‘no, no, no, you can’t come in here’.
‘I explained that I could and that Annie was a guide dog and she was allowed to go inside.
‘He said she couldn’t and ushered us out. He then told us to have a nice day, something which then became impossible.’The response here couldn't have been more different, however:
A spokesperson for the hotel told metro.co.uk: ‘We unreservedly apologise to the guide dog owner for this incident.
‘The person who turned the owner away is no longer with us and does not share our values.
‘We welcome all guide dogs and other assistance dogs to our hotel have done so for the last 50 years.’That's the way to do it!
I can imagine the Asthma lobby will be demanding "May have contained dog. May have been used by people who ate the peanuts from the mini bar and 3rd hand smoke" notices on all hotel rooms.
ReplyDeleteThe law is an ass. Taxis, hotels, whatever, it should be 'my gaff, my rules'.
ReplyDeleteIt baffles me that some people have the right to force entry into other peoples property and demand service
Agree with Bucko
ReplyDeleteI love dogs, but accept some don't and if they don't want our dogs in their property that's OK.
Hotels, pubs and other alcohol licensed premises need to remember they have right to refuse entry or eject without giving a reason - thus, don't provide a reason.
It seems to me that it would be very easy to reserve a small number of rooms for guests who have guide dogs and to ensure that no one with an allergy gets to use them.
ReplyDeleteStonyground
"I can imagine the Asthma lobby will be demanding "May have contained dog. May have been used by people who ate the peanuts from the mini bar and 3rd hand smoke" notices on all hotel rooms."
ReplyDeleteLOL!
"The law is an ass. "
But it IS the law.
"It seems to me that it would be very easy to reserve a small number of rooms for guests who have guide dogs and to ensure that no one with an allergy gets to use them."
But there's cross-contamination from cleaning staff to consider....